An in-depth look at Dartmouth's rich, 350-year history

From its pastoral beginnings, Dartmouth is now the fifth largest town in the commonwealth. And more than 100 volunteers and officials are working hard to ensure today's residents know of and celebrate the town's history.

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By AUDITI GUHA

southcoasttoday.com

By AUDITI GUHA

Posted Mar. 2, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 3, 2014 at 8:18 AM

By AUDITI GUHA

Posted Mar. 2, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 3, 2014 at 8:18 AM

» Social News

DARTMOUTH — John George Jr. said he remembers delivering newspapers on Tucker Lane when it was a dirt road.

“Now, instead of a sleepy little farm town, Dartmouth has become a big town. I don't know if that's for the better but it has certainly changed drastically,” said George, a Select Board member and third-generation owner of the John George Farm.

The earliest records indicate that English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold sailed into Buzzards Bay in 1602 and landed at what is now called Round Hill.

From its pastoral beginnings, Dartmouth is now the fifth largest town (by land area) in the commonwealth. And as the town looks to mark its 350th birthday, more than 100 volunteers and officials are working hard to ensure today's residents know of and celebrate the town's rich history.

The history of Dartmouth includes the communities that surround it today and Cynthia Marland, DCTV (Dartmouth Community TV) director of media and 350th Committee chairman said the committee has reached out to its neighbors to help plan the festivities. They include a March 22 gala, fireworks on June 8 Incorporation Day and a parade on Sept. 7.

“There are a lot of events that obviously Dartmouth residents will be involved in but we've been working with neighboring towns too. Fairhaven has been great about how they celebrated their (300th last year),” she said.

Events such as a fire muster will involve area fire departments and the committee has partnered with the New Bedford Whaling Museum in the upcoming visit of the whaleship Charles W. Morgan.

Marland invites residents to join the fun “Because it's about our SouthCoast heritage and the rich history we have here that is just amazing.”

In 1652, a group of 34 settlers from Plymouth purchased a large section of Old Dartmouth from the Indian Chief Massasoit. Although each of their shares consisted of more than 2,000 acres, only 10 of them or their families actually settled in the town around 1660.

One of them was Henry Howland who built a house in Dartmouth. Generations later, his great-grandson Barnabas inherited the Round Hill Farm and built a small farmhouse there around 1721.

With wide swaths of land cut by the rivers and inlets of Buzzards Bay, the settlements were far apart. The openness and lack of a town center or church attracted religious dissidents, Baptists and Quakers, who then bought some land and settled here to freely practice their religions.

By 1675, there were 37 dwellings in Old Dartmouth, many of which were later destroyed in King Philip's War. The Dartmouth dwellings ranged from the local Russell Garrison and Rhode Island to as far away as Deerfield in Western Massachusetts.

Sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, King Philip's War (1675-1676) was a bloody uprising and the last major effort by local Native Americans to drive out the English settlers.

King Philip, as the English called him, was the son of Massasoit and chief of the Wampanoag nation. He distrusted the colonists and their laws which made it illegal for the English to trade with Wampanoags. After his brother and father died, he brought the tribes together in an uprising that became New England's biggest conflict in the 17th century and one of the most devastating battles in the country. The war raged for 14 months and destroyed 12 frontier towns, ending shortly after Metacom was captured and beheaded.

Dartmouth's Planning Director Donald Perry said the war really stands out for him when

he looks back at the town's history.

“To me, it just brings back that Dartmouth was very much a wilderness. It's kind of hard to imagine now with the conveniences we have,” he said.

Perry said it's also a hard event to reconcile. On one hand he said he could not imagine the fear of the settlers holed up in the Russell Garrison; on the other, he is sympathetic to the Native Americans who were trying to protect their land.

“It's very sad — and frustrating,” Perry said.

By 1700, Dartmouth had developed an inland agriculture economy supported by multiple mills and an iron works, mostly by the Paskamansett and Slocum rivers. The sea, a major source of transportation and food, played a big role in the town's development. The salt industry, important for preserving food and for protecting the hulls of ships from rot, was born around 1720.

Russells Mills is believed to be one of the earliest settled and least changed of Dartmouth's villages, retaining much of its early 19th century charm. There were 11 known water mills operating there, including grist mills, saw mills, a bark mill and a fulling mill for processing woolen goods. Blacksmiths, a wheelwright, a tannery, a shipbuilder, and a slaughterhouse made Russells Mills a bustling community. Most of its homes were built in the 18th and early 19th centuries, many of which have been preserved. Three village schools — Grange Hall built in 1860, the village library built in 1871 and the pottery and retail shop built in 1913 — still stand.

With many mills built along the Paskamansett River, Smith Mills, settled after King Philip's War, also became an early center of trade and commerce. The first Town House, voted by residents, was erected there in 1686. A general store, post office, tavern and school followed. A Baptist church built was in 1838 and a Quaker meetinghouse in 1849.

Padanaram was settled by people involved in boating, shipping, the salt industries and other allied trades. But the earliest 17th century houses were destroyed in King Philip's War and some of the 18th century ones in the American Revolution.

Laban Thacher, who is thought to have named the village, came from Cape Cod in the 1790s to what was then Akin's Wharf and built a large shipyard. The village's main industry was previously dominated by Elihu Akin, a patriot who drove the Tories from the village. This led to the British burning down his home and waterfront business in September 1778.

In 1827, the Dartmouth Bridge Company was formed to build a bridge across the harbor previously only supplied by ferry. The shipbuilding industry still continues there today.

Up north, Hixville grew around a church established by Rev. Daniel Hix in 1781 and run by him until 1834. The church prospered under his leadership and led to founding 35 other churches in the area.

Beginning in 1825, Hixville became a stage stop between New Bedford and Fall River. Inns developed, followed by a general store, a blacksmith store, a school and a post office. In 1875 a railroad station to the south was named after the village. Like Russells Mills, Hixville remains mostly unchanged.

Paul E. Levasseur, 76, a retired elementary teacher and founder and first director of the Sea Lab Marine Science Education Center, said his grandparents had a farm off Reed Road in the 1800s. He grew up on Tucker Road where there was a farm they got their milk from. He moved to Hixville after World War II began and said the house did not have electricity.

“We had to use kerosene lights, had real candles on our Christmas tree, and a fire in the fireplace where we popped corn,” he said. “We had an outhouse. It was very cold in the winter time and there were a lot of wild animals around, too, but it was neat, we loved it.”

Outside the developing villages, most people still lived on large tracts of farmland.

“I like to think about the fact that this was once a farming area. Even people in businesses had farms,” said Judith Lund, a member of the Historical Commission. “It was an area important for growing crops and we are getting back to that today with people realizing the value of open land and farms.”

One of the oldest houses that still stands is the little brown Akin House at 762 Dartmouth St., thought to have been built in 1762 by Job Mosher. After his waterside properties were burned down by the British during the revolution, Elihu Akin relocated there. The house is being restored for educational use.

The Allen-Sheehan Mill at 107 Slades Corner Road was in continuous operation from the late 1600s until 1939.The building is now being rebuilt to its original state and the millworks are being restored.

The present Apponegansett Meetinghouse at 856 Russells Mills Road was built in 1799, near the original that was erected in 1699. Open for worship during the summer months, the original access to the building was from the back by the cemetery wall.

The foundation footprint of the Russell Garrison is still visible at Fort Street. The home of John Russell, it is where Dartmouth residents gathered to defend themselves from the Native Indians during King Philip's War.

The Howland family purchased a large stretch of farmland in 1695 at Round Hill. The original Howland homestead, built around 1721, was later moved to Newport, R.I. A large summer cottage was later built here by Colonel Green in 1921.

The whaleship Charles W. Morgan was berthed at his pier for some time. The mansion was later modified to house condominiums.

Joseph Ingoldsby, an artist and historian who is designing kiosks to mark historic spots around town and create a Dartmouth Heritage Trail said, “We feel that it is a way to bring history alive for a new generation. Dartmouth has a rich cultural history that has to be shared to be remembered.”

In 1787, the old town split up to form Westport, Dartmouth and New Bedford which later divided further to form Fairhaven and Acushnet. But it continued to be an agricultural community with a mostly rural character. The population remained fairly steady from 1800 to 1900.

With the advent of trolleys and New Bedford becoming more industrialized, Dartmouth started to become more residential by 1900. Its prosperity led to the development of the summer communities of Nonquitt, BayView, Salter's Point and Mishaum Point. As people moved to make their home in the coveted coastal community, Portuguese immigrants looking to farm began to acquire land for dairy farms.

Westport and Dartmouth once had the most dairy farms in Massachusetts. On one Dartmouth road alone, there were 12 dairy farms with 347 milking cows. In 1957, there were 250 farms in town.

Gulf Hill Dairy, founded in 1896 by Joseph T. Fernandez, grew from a one-man operation to one of New England's most modern and successful dairies. It transformed the dairy industry by introducing homogenized milk to Southeastern Massachusetts in 1946 and vitamin-enriched milk in 1962.

After World War II, Dartmouth saw its greatest period of change. Farming declined, housing grew and Dartmouth began to become a bedroom community for New Bedford.

Levasseur, who volunteers at DCTV and is working on a documentary about the history of the railroad in Dartmouth, said he remembers when the trolley cars ran from New Bedford to Lincoln Park. “I loved to ride those, it was a big thing,” he said.

The spaces between the villages were developed, trails were widened to form roads and rural regions became urban.

In 1903, the Bush Street School was built to house the first Dartmouth High School class. In 1927, the high school was moved to the building that now houses the Town Hall. The new high school on Bakerville Road was built in 2002.

More development came with the 710-acre Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute (SMTI) designed by architect Paul Rudolph in 1964. SMTI became Southeastern Massachusetts University (SMU) in 1969. The university continued to grow with residence halls built in the '70s and research facilities in the '80s. In 1991, it joined the new University of Massachusetts system.

Dartmouth has continued to grow in recent times with big box stores and medical offices built along Route 6 and Faunce Corner Road.

The town has nine precincts, has a Representative Town Meeting form of government, and an estimated population of 33,511 in 2013.

“While visitors from Boston or New York may be charmed by the few farms that remain and the scenic beauty, they don't realize it is no longer a sleepy pastoral town,” George said.

He said he is nostalgic for old-time staples like Goldstein's Barnyard Garden, Smith Mills Hardware store, King Lumber and the Paskamansett Links golf course on which the Dartmouth Mall was constructed between 1969 and 1971.

“Dartmouth was a good town 50 to 100 years ago. It's still a great town with great people, but it has changed, like a lot of towns have changed.”